Boston Globe Michael Gerson Editorial -- Not the whole story: I take issue with Michael Gerson's August 17 editorial "Karl Rove, political guru extraordinaire." Mr. Gerson heaps praise on Karl Rove for a variety of things including handing George Bush the elections of 2000 and 2004. He measures Karl Rove by his ability to capture a new majority and win two presidential victories. What he doesn't concentrate on is the quality and the consequences of the wins.

The 2000 presidential win was achieved by the skin of their teeth and both presidential wins included voter tampering in the extreme, smearing opponents and probable fraud. If the 2000 and 2004 elections were arrived at honestly and fairly I am certain one would have seen a different scenario all together. Everyone then would be talking about Rove's ineffectiveness.

The consequences of these so called wins have been profound and have cost lives and treasure. The debacles and lies leading us to the Iraq war, the loss of life during Hurricane Katrina, the lack of policy regarding global warming and fudging of scientific data, the political firing of US attorneys, the outing of a CIA agent and the ad infinitum corruption scandals of this administration and of a Republican Congress are some of them. Mr. Rove possibly engineered much of that. Yes, Karl Rove was great at pulling the strings behind George Bush to get him elected and if Rove had to use unsavory means to do that he did so. Someone used to say it's not whether you win or lose, it's how you play the game that counts. Obviously, that lesson of the American way was lost on Karl Rove and we are all the worse off because of it.